Clownfish always hiding
 

Hey guys,

I have had my Cinnamon Clownfish for about 3 years now and about 6 months ago he started hiding all the time during the day. He also gets easily frightened, and a lot of times won't even come out of hiding during feeding time. At night, he swims around the tank and lays around in his anemone the entire time.

His only tank mates are some hermit crabs and a Randall's Goby that has been with him the entire 3 years.

I hate to sound cruel, but I like a lot of activity in my tank, and with him hiding the entire time the lights are on, I am inclined to return him to a pet store in exchange for another clown.

If anyone has had a clownfish act like this, or has any suggestions, please feel free to share.

A wild guess here but perhaps your daytime lights are not grounded properly and he is being affected by stray voltage?

Using stock 28g NanoCube HQI lighting. What is the best way to check for this?

Wouldn't my inverts/corals suffer if there was enough stray voltage in the tank that my clownfish is being effected that much by it? My corals have been growing like mad.

Bump.

if you can get your hands on a voltmeter you can check the fixture for current, i would also imagine it would work for the water as well.

Hope that helps.

someone might want to chime in on this, but if there is electrical current in the water the voltmeter should pick it up

Before I go out an buy a multimeter to measure this, can anyone comment on this?

Riddle me this:
Wouldn't my inverts/corals suffer if there was enough stray voltage in the tank that my clownfish is being effected that much by it? My corals have been growing like mad.

It probably is not stray voltage. I only mentioned it because the fish hides when the lights are on. If you wanted to test this then leave the lights off one day with all of the room lights on so the tank gets some light and does not go into night mode. If fishy is swimming around normally and not spooked then have another look at your lighting system.

as just mentioned odds are it is not stray voltage, but it is odd how your clown just decided to start hiding. If nothing else is effected, there has to be some other issue. Maybe your clown is a chicken now..

I turned the halides off and opened the window so the tank was lit (somewhat) and he came right out and into his anemone like he does at night time. As soon as I turned the lights back on, he swam away into his cave and stayed there.

I just think he is scared of something. Even during feeding time, when he does come out, he constantly darts back into his cave like something spooked him. Then he will slowly come back out, eat a couple more shrimp and dart back in again.

Just another side note. I had a Flame Angel in there with him for a couple months (until the Flame Angel magically disappeared). During that time is when my Clown was at his most active state. He would always swim around the front of the tank and play follow the leader with the Flame Angel. It seems like since then is when he began getting freaked out by everything and hiding all the time.

Any chance he jet prefers it where it's cooler my puffer during peak lighting hides under rocks either from the warmth or the brightness but as loon as the halides are off wach out he's helicoptering around lol :) good luck:)